He has just turned 26, but he has spent his whole life observing how nougat is made and sold from fair to fair. Pedro Ibáñez, better known on social networks as Pedro el Turronero, is the son, grandson and great-grandson of artisan makers of this and other confectionery, and he combines his work as a street vendor in the cities of Granada and Almería with the creation of videos in which he shows how he breaks blocks of nougat weighing more than 50 kilos with a knife and hammer.
Her great-grandfather and grandfather started the family business, making treats in a small room with a fireplace in their own home. Once ready, they put them in a wooden chest which they carried on the back of a donkey to sell them in the Alpujarra. Pedro’s father continued the activity by expanding it with a slightly larger workshop which, of course, was still located in his own house, but now on the ground floor. “Since I was little, my parents worked in the factory and my sister and I were always there. It was like a room like any other,” Pedro remembers. Pedro and his sister Chari were born in this house in the town of Ugíjar, Granada, where they grew up and where, even today, their mother continues to live. It is also in this 70 square meter workshop that they have been making their candies with the same recipe for decades.
Everything changed in 2018, when Pedro’s father died and he and his sister had to take over the business almost overnight. “My sister, who is six years older than me, had already been working with my father at the factory for some time when this happened, but it surprised us all and it was not easy to continue,” explains Pedro, who was only 18 at the time. From the beginning, they both made it clear that they wanted to continue the family tradition of making and selling artisanal treats, but there was a lot they didn’t know and had to learn as they went along. Added to all this was the fact that, in every town they went to, people asked them questions about their father, surprised not to see him at his work. “I had to break the news to everyone who asked, so it wasn’t just the moment of his passing, we remembered it every day.”
The pillar of his activity remains, as for his father and his ancestors, street sales. Hence the phrase with which the young trader says goodbye to all his videos: “See you at the next fair!” » Pedro explains that they have been doing the same routes for 40 years and that they maintain everything almost as before, although lately they have launched, for example, the Dulces Ibáñez Aguado website and, just a few months ago, they started with social networks. “I didn’t expect the good reception my videos received,” says Pedro. “My intention was to teach our profession to everyone, so that people could see what we do and thus try to go a little further. »
He began posting videos on Instagram and TikTok showing how he breaks the giant blocks of nougat that his sister Chari makes, armed with a hammer and a blade. Both instruments have a history: the hammer, more than 40 years old, was bought by his father from another trader and is the one that Pedro continues to carry wherever he goes, “a hammer with decades of work, which broke a few blocks of nougat”; The blade, for its part, was made by a blacksmith from his town, particularly for cutting nougat, “it’s not something you find anywhere,” he emphasizes.
His videos have aroused the interest of thousands of people, fascinated by the skill with which he crumbles each block of nougat, but above all by the close and natural way in which Pedro talks about his profession. To liven things up and encourage interaction, he offers challenges in which he tries to “nail” a 500 gram bag, then specifies that if he is a little overweight, there is no problem, because these extra cents are also worth gold in other respects, for example in the relationship with customers. “Craftsmanship is not always precise, but it is always honest,” he said in one of his videos. Because, although they always make the nougat in the same way, the almond is mixed by hand and, “sometimes it comes out a little whiter, because it takes on more of the color of egg white, and other times it takes on more of the color of honey and comes out a little browner,” explains Pedro. When the nougat is whiter, it usually weighs a little less, so it’s not so easy to get the exact weight. It’s not that important either, since knowing it and therefore knowing the product you sell is also a job.
The fair-to-fair life isn’t for everyone, but Pedro admits he loves it. “People see it as very hard, because in the end you have to stay on the street for many hours, even if it’s raining or very hot, for several days in a row, but that’s what I’ve done all my life and, the truth is, I love the humane treatment you have with people.” There are people you only see once a year at the fair, but by going to the same place for so many years, a relationship develops. They always try to break the nougat in front of the customer, so that he can see that it is freshly cut, “like when you go to the butchery and they cut you a steak”. They like to sell the fresh product, “if the fair starts on Friday, the sweets are made from Thursday or, at most, for two days.” Breaking it by hand instead of selling it in tablets is, for Pedro and his sister, a way of differentiating themselves and also of giving even more value to artisanal products.
In December, they make nougat almost every day, although Pedro says they sell it from April to February. “In summer, we have very good fairs with municipal festivals and we consume a lot of nougat. I can tell you that in August, I sell 200 kilos of it. Perhaps I have internalized it so much that it does not seem strange to me that it is consumed daily, even in the middle of summer.” In addition to nougat, at Dulces Ibáñez Aguado they make donuts with oil and cognac, glazed sponge cakes, almond puffs, yolks, sweet potatoes and candied pumpkin. The latter, in addition to candiing it themselves, they also plant it, with the help of several farmers in the town. Their products can be found in some stores and bakeries, but their strength remains the fairs.
Pedro is struck by the fact that people of all ages follow him. “There are parents who tell me that their little son was crazy to go to the fair ‘to see Pedro el Turronero’, but then people aged 70 or 80 who saw me on social networks also come to the stand.” He was surprised, and even better, by the interest that young people seem to have in crafts. “I don’t know if it’s because, as I dedicate myself to it, in the end I only listen to the conversations of those who come to my station and, if they are there, it’s because they like what we do. But with social networks, I realized that there are even more people who really appreciate it.”
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